Typical robotic surgical arms include a number of joints and links to provide a range of motion to form a work envelope for an end effector coupled thereto. It is desirable to improve the range of motion of robotic surgical arms to increase the work envelope of the end effectors coupled thereto to perform a wider variety of robotic surgical procedures.
Typical robotic surgical arms further include a plurality of metal control cables routed therein which are moved to mechanically control the motion of the links about the joints and the motion in the end effector. The use of the plurality of metal control cables is expensive and complicates the maintenance of the robotic surgical arms. It is desirable to reduce the manufacturing and maintenance costs of robotic surgical arms while at the same time improving its range of motion.